What is the connection between The United States and Japan?

The Fukushima Disaster occurred over 5,000 miles away, so many people wonder – why should we be concerned?

The west coast of The United States is more connected to Fukushima than we may think. Currents, or streams of seawater formed by wind and the rotation of Earth, create a direct pathway that pushes water from Japan to Oregon. This path is part of the North Pacific Gyre, which is an elliptical, clock-wise system of currents that rotates in Pacific Ocean between Asia and North America. This gyre is our direct connection to Japan and why we will soon detect radiation from Fukushima Daiichi on our coastlines.

The North Pacific Gyre is a system of 4 oceanic currents: the Kuroshio Current, the North Pacific Current, the California Current, and the North Equatorial Current.